Supply & Demand Dashboard

The C3 Supply and Demand Dashboard leverages state data to estimate child care needs versus availability. This dashboard provides a snapshot of the current child care climate using multiple data points to suggest relative geographic or age group needs.

For the best experience, please use a home computer or tablet to view the data within this dashboard.

Terms and Conditions

Child care in every state looks a little different, and we also have multiple data systems collecting and maintaining information about providers. The following definitions provide background about Iowa child care and details about how data is used in C3 to generate the best combined data from across these systems for reporting in the dashboards.

IOWA CHILD CARE

Type of care: Iowa’s child care options include licensed centers, registered child development homes, and non-registered child care homes, with centers serving larger groups in commercial settings and homes providing care in residential spaces.

Child development home: care for a small group of children and operate in a residential space, such as a house, apartment, or condo unit. There are four categories of child development homes, ‘A,’ ‘B,’ ‘C1,’ and ‘C.’ Requirements and the number of children allowed in care at any one time increases as you move from ‘A’ to ‘C.’

Iowa Quality for Kids (IQ4K^®) is Iowa’s voluntary Quality Rating and Improvement System. There are five levels of quality programs can achieve. For more information visit Iowa CCR&R.

CCR&R Region: a grouping of counties assigned to a specific Child Care Resource and Referral Agency. For more information, visit Iowa CCR&R.

Child Care Assistance (CCA) helps pay for child care while a parent or caretaker works or is in school, or when they are looking for work or temporarily unable to care for children because of medical reasons. For more information, visit Iowa HHS Child Care Assistance.

KEY TERMS

Total Providers: total number of providers offering regulated care for children 12 and under that are registered or licensed by the state of Iowa and non-registered with an active Child Care Assistance Provider Agreement.

% Providers Reporting: percentage of total child care providers who have updated or confirmed their vacancies in the past 60 days in at least one data system.

Total Vacancies: total number of available openings reported by child care providers. Only vacancies reported or confirmed from at least one data source within the last 60 days are counted. Age group vacancy totals may not match total vacancy due to differences in reporting methods and that some providers may have an opening that could be filled by multiple age groups.

Providers at Capacity: total number of child care providers who report no vacancies or who have not reported vacancy information in the last 60 days.

Operational Capacity: total number of children by age group that a child care provider reports that they are capable of and interested in caring for at a given time. This includes having sufficient space and workforce to care for the quantity of children identified. (Note: this is not licensed/registered capacity, which is often higher for most programs than their true operational or desired capacity)

Registered/Licensed Capacity: total number of children HHS has identified the child care provider can legally care for at any given time. (Note: this supply level is ONLY available when ‘All Age Groups’ in the Age Group filter is selected.)

Total Supply: total number of children that can be cared for at one time based on providers registered/licensed capacity or operational capacity. When providers have not provided operational capacity data in the last 60 days, licensed/registered capacity is used to determine supply.

Child care Demand Level estimate options available in the dashboard are based on the age group selected.

100% All Births uses Iowa public health birth record data. This assumes that all children born in Iowa stay in Iowa and need child care as they age. Published research using national and state data estimate that not all children need child care and this differs by age (see additional estimates below).

76% Estimate w/Work Status (ages 0-5) is based on research accounting for families with young children that have all parents in the household in the workforce.

67% Estimate w/Work Status and Choice (ages (0-5) includes research about estimates of parents in the workforce and estimates of family choice.

20% Estimate (school age) is based on research that suggests much fewer school aged children utilize child care, with an average need for children ages 6-12 estimated at 20%.

Note: On 10/9/2025, the Demand and Supply and Demand Dashboards were updated. Data accessed prior to this date may look different.